90 TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. CH. VI. 



" inquired/' as the whole talking was in Gaelic, and 

 therefore carried on by Dunbar. At last we met 

 with an old woman, who told him that there was a 

 loch some two miles off, which had always gone by 

 the name of the Loch of the Fishing Eagle ; her 

 Gaelic name for it being " Loch n' allan-yasker." 

 I probably write the Gaelic incorrectly, but that 

 was as near as I could make out what the name 

 sounded like ; Dunbar interpreted it to me as 

 meaning literally, the " Loch of the Eagle-fisher." 

 This revived our spirits, and we set our shoulders 

 to the hill again with fresh confidence, and a steep, 

 rough hill it was. We struck into the country 

 in a north-west direction, keeping separate heights, 

 in order to have a better chance of finding the lake. 

 Having passed several lochs without observing the 

 object of our search, I began almost to despair, and 

 to think that we must have mistaken the whole 

 matter the more so, as from the aspect of the rocks 

 and the feel of the air from the north, I was con- 

 fident that the ocean must be at no great distance 

 from us ; and, indeed, that it must be washing the 

 other side of the very next range of rocks to that on 

 which we were. There is a certain look and feel of 

 the atmosphere when approaching the sea, which is 

 quite unmistakable. We had already walked an 

 hour and a half straight north-west, thus making 



